An occasional glimpse into the workings of the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Executive (or comments on anything else that takes my fancy).

22 February 2011

Greenery

Nice idea but note the last paragraph of this extract from The Scotsman:

THOUSANDS of Scottish homes will be heated by renewable energy if Labour wins power in May's Holyrood election, the party has promised.

Under the plans Labour says are worth about £70 million over the next four years, 10,000 homes would produce their own, renewable energy....Labour said it would fund the policy with income generated through the UK government's feed-in tariffs scheme, under which households that generate their own electricity from renewable energy receive payments from energy suppliers.Mr Gray pledged the scheme would be started within 100 days of a Labour administration being elected, with an agency called Energy Scotland launched to take forward the plan.

Within 100 days? The first ten days of a new administration would be taken up by coalition negotiations and cabinet appointments. They would then need to seek advice from the civil service on the proposed scheme (say another ten days). They would need to advertise the posts in the new Energy Scotland and recruit officials for it (say 45 days at minimum). That leaves 35 days to consult local authorities and to prepare detailed guidance on how the scheme would operate.